Motorists Task RSG On Trailer Park Project

The plan by the Rivers State Government to  build a trailer park at Eleme Town, seems to have been abandoned as motorists and road users have renewed  their call on the state government to address the road traffic congestion caused by trailers and tankers drivers at the Eleme Refinery road.

It would be recalled that building of a trailer park at Akpajo/Eleme axis was part of the agenda of the State Government’s Transportation reform programme following which land has been acquired but is yet to take off.

Other projects in the reform programme include the on-going Monorail project, on-going mega bus terminal at Omagwa, proposed mega bus terminals at Emohua, Eleme and Oyigbo, acquisition of more ferry boats to boost water transportation, building of bus stop stands, among others.

Speaking to The Tide on Monday at Eleme, Headquarters of Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, a motorist , Dawari Kalio, lamented over incessant road traffic congestion experienced at the Eleme Refinery road by the Onne express way, which he said is usually caused by the indiscriminate parking of trailers and tankers along the road.

According to him, “I am appealing to the state government to revisit and implement  the already planned and designed project that would salvage and alleviate the suffering of road users in the area”, saying that it would take all the trailers and tankers off the road, thereby decongesting the roads.

Besides road traffic decongestion as one of the benefit of building the park, it would also generate revenue  to the government and reduce the rate of criminal activities in the area, mostly perpetrated by touts.

It would also boost the business activities of the small and medium enterprises, like canteens (food vendors), volcanizers, mechanics  and others.

A tanker driver, Abdullahi Musa, told The Tide that the reason for the road congestion in the area is beyond any driver’s control  because every driver wants to load petroleum product and go, “therefore you must hustle to get through”.

He attributed the problem to the low capacity of the road to accommodate high number of vehicles with high tonnage,  saying that the only option is for government to build a high capacity trailer park that can accommodate about 1,000 trailers.